Protest in Islamabad against enforced disappearances in Balochistan
Dec 10, 2021
Islamabad [Pakistan], December 10 : Dozens of people protested in Islamabad to highlight the rampant enforced disappearance cases in Balochistan.
The rally was held by Voice For Baloch Missing Persons on Thursday. The protesters held placards and banners demanding the release of all forcefully disappeared Baloch people.
Enforced disappearance has been used as a tool by the Pakistani state to silence the oppressed people of Balochistan since the very first day of its occupation.
While countless abductees have been killed, many of them are still facing inhuman torture in army secret cells.
While successive governments have promised to criminalise enforced disappearance, none has taken concrete steps and the practice continues with impunity.
Several human rights organisations including the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Amnesty International have confirmed that security forces are behind these disappearances,
Recently, fighting between Pakistan security forces and Baloch insurgents have intensified in the region. In its 2020 Country Reports on Human Rights, the US State Department has highlighted significant human rights issues in Pakistan, including unlawful or arbitrary killings by the government and forced disappearance of Pashtun, Sindhi and Baloch human rights activists.
In a recent report titled "Living Ghosts," the human rights group Amnesty International documented the practice of enforced disappearances in Pakistan and urged Pakistani authorities to end its use as a tool of state policy.
